I’ve been learning a lot of easy tunes - things that are already in my head (i.e. We Three Kings, Cockles & Mussles, Over the River & etc.) but I am wondering what would be a good Top Ten list of songs that every Whistler should know. And I’m not really limiting the list to Irish tunes but that seems to be the direction I’m headed - I’d like to learn more Irish tunes on the whistle and I’m looking for a good song selection to start with, a short repertoire that I could carry with me to an Irish/Celtic jam session and feel like ‘one of the lads’. What say you?
well, currently, the top ten things with melodies 
that members have added to their songbooks over at thesession.org are:
drowsy maggie
the kesh jig
butterfly
cooley’s
morrison’s
silver spear
banshee
maid behind the bar
banish misfortune
wind that shakes the barley
don’t know as this list will make you “one of the lads” or no… but… sure can’t hurt to learn the songs… jsut be prepared to take awhile to learn them up to speed. have a lot of fun. (for me, the slower it is, the greater the odds that i’ll be able to play it at speed.)
be well,
jim
The funny thing is that those are the exact first tunes I learnt.
Not in that order, but still. Kind of proves your point.
Someone will mention it sooner or later, so I think I’ll just add: it is a song when there is singing, and a tune when there isn’t any singing.
It’s good to know so that there aren’t any misunderstandings.
EDIT: Above was written before the OP edited the topic from “songs” to “tunes”.
tunes. top 10 tunes.
Well, I find that songs are of very limited use to a whistler in Irish sessions. There may be a favorite song or two if a good singer is present, usually done solo, with group singing on choruses and maybe some noodling of harmony. Otherwise sessions are mostly straight instrumental around here. And playing lots of songs as whistle airs will slow the pace and probably not win many favors. Not worth making a Top Ten list.
Oops … just saw your last post.
As for tunes, there’s no universal session tune repertoire. So the best way to scope out a particular session you’d like to attend is to show up with a portable recorder, record the tunes and settings they play, make note of the tune names, and ask questions. Then go home and work on things from there.
Most sessions are heavy on reels, followed by jigs, and then everything else. Slow or beginners sessions may have that reversed, with more hornpipes, slides, etc.
The list at http://www.thesession.org/members is a pretty good guide. Click on the Tunebook tab, and you get a descending list of the favorites there. The first few pages are, indeed, pretty universally known or played everywhere.
When I started, I also worked through the Dave Mallinson series of books: 100 ___ Irish Session Tunes. Good selections and settings (though influenced by his D/G box playing). But hardly necessary, with all the ABC resources on the net. For reliable, session-friendly settings, Henrik Norbeck’s ABC transcriptions are tops IMO.
Mallinson: http://www.mally.com/results.asp?CategoryID=1
Norbeck: http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/